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Nuru International is a United States-based social venture created to help disadvantaged communities in rural areas of Kenya and Ethiopia. [1] The ultimate aim of the program is to help local leaders end extreme poverty in their communities. [2] Nuru is a Kiswahili word that means "light."
Nuru International was founded by Jake Harriman, who attended the U.S. Naval Academy and served for over 7 years in the U.S. Marine Corps as a Platoon Commander. [3] [4] Harriman's experiences in combat compelled him to believe that extreme poverty was a contributing factor to global terrorism. [5] Harriman left his career in the Marine Corps and enrolled at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business. This move was motivated by a desire to start an organization that would fight terrorism by ending extreme poverty. [6] His company, Nuru International, began operations in 2008. [7]
Nuru International trains and equips local leaders in effective poverty reduction methods developed by other humanitarian organizations around the world. Because of this approach, Nuru has been called a "general contractor of the NGO sector". [8] Nuru, as of 2009, has been piloting a community development model to address four areas of need: hunger, inability to cope with economic shock, preventable disease/death, and lack of access to quality education during childhood. [9] Nuru partners with organizations such as One Acre Fund. [10] [ dead link ]
Nuru identifies and mentors local leaders in the principles of servant leadership by mobilizing the community into groups led by these local leaders. This leadership model aims to supply leaders with the necessary expertise to lift their communities out of extreme poverty. [11]
Nuru integrates revenue generation models into all five of its program areas to achieve sustainability and eventually scale to achieve national impact. [12]
Nuru International's first project was in Kuria, Kenya. Located in the southwestern Kenya, Kuria is one of Kenya's poorest districts. [13]
As of 2010, 5,525 farming families have enrolled in Nuru's agriculture loan program, experiencing a 123% increase in their maize yields on average. [14] Nuru's other program areas (healthcare, education, and community economic development) operate in concert with the agriculture program to develop humanitarian aid. [15]
Extreme poverty is the most severe type of poverty, defined by the United Nations (UN) as "a condition characterized by severe deprivation of basic human needs, including food, safe drinking water, sanitation facilities, health, shelter, education and information. It depends not only on income but also on access to services". Historically, other definitions have been proposed within the United Nations.
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Kuria District was an administrative district in the Nyanza Province of Kenya. Its capital town is Kehancha. The district has a population of 256,086 and an area of 581/km2. It is inhabited by a minority group of people fondly known as Kuria people, also referred to as Abakuria (Mkuria/Wakuria) in Swahili. They are scattered across the Kenya-Tanzania border and are neighbors to the Kisii, Luo, and Maasai people.
The Qatar Red Crescent Society, the Qatari branch of the Red Crescent Society, was established in 1978. In 1981, it gained international recognition from the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva and joined the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). It is also a member of the Secretariat of Arab Red Crescent Societies in Jeddah. It became the first philanthropic organization in Qatar to establish a women's branch in 1982.
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Realizing the Dream, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization founded in 2006 by Martin Luther King III to carry on the legacy of his parents, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Mrs. Coretta Scott King. Located in Atlanta, Georgia, the organization carries out initiatives on both the domestic and international level. The mission of Realizing the Dream is "To champion freedom, justice, and equality by working to eliminate poverty, build community and foster peace through nonviolence." Two of Realizing the Dream's main projects are the 50 Communities Network, an effort against American poverty, and the Generation II Global Peace Initiative, a peace-building team composed of sons, daughters and grandchildren of leading 20th century activists.
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